A lesson in patience

I learned quite a bit about patience this morning. Patience, heeding warnings, and moving on. All before finishing my first cup of coffee.

Disclaimer: I realize the previous paragraph makes it sound like I experienced a monumental epiphany this morning. On the contrary, this post is not deep, profound, or philosophical in any way. It is about memory cards and coffee. If you manage to extrapolate something more from this, that would be entirely accidental on my part. But yay for you!

You know how they say you should always eject a device from your computer first before disconnecting it? Or wait until the camera finishes powering down before pulling the memory card out? Then one day, to your horror, you accidentally do just that. But nothing happens, everything looks fine. Whew. Second time! Still good. And you get complacent and think, they’re just fear mongering. Like that time your aunt warned you that if you made a face and were struck by a gust of wind, your face would freeze. Or that if you left any grains of rice on your plate, your future husband would have that many zits on his face. (Don’t even ask.)

This morning, after 3 months of practice—another lesson in patience right there—I poured what was probably my best ever attempt at latte art (not the one you see above, and you’ll understand why in a second). Excitedly, I whipped out the big camera to document it. Took a few shots, checked them on the camera screen, then impatiently grabbed the memory card to transfer to my computer. Also, because of said impatience, I drank my latte while it was still hot. Because it’s coffee. And coffee is good.

When I got to my computer, I loaded the card and fired up Lightroom. Waiting. Waiting. Then there it was: last night’s pasta. What? Where’s my latte? Where’s my pretty, fairly symmetrical, almost-graceful rosette? Eject the card, and reload. Still the pasta. Re-eject and re-reload, because sometimes I actually believe that doing the exact same thing multiple times makes a difference. Nada. I even transferred the card back to the camera, hoping to find my shots there. But no. Still the pasta. I stare at my half-empty cup of latte on the table, sheepishly apologize, and assure it that everything is fine. That even though we were the only ones who had ever seen its prior glory, that doesn’t mean it was never beautiful.

Then I gulped the rest of it down and moved on. Because it’s coffee. And coffee is good.

Moral of the story: Please be patient and wait until your camera finishes writing to the card and powering down before yanking that card out.

Moral #2 of the story: Talking to your cup of coffee is not strange as long as you don’t do it in front of other (normal) people.

Oh dear! I haven’t pulled the card out but I did rush out to go paddling one day and forgot to put one in. The camera I use for kayaking has built-in memory that holds about 6 pictures, so I took that many pictures out on the bay before I realized there was no card. Unfortunately, because everybody uses cards in their cameras now, the camera didn’t come with a cable to download the pictures. That camera later on had an accident in the selfsame bay. I have taken SO SO SO many pictures of Jamaica Bay but of course I am completely convinced that at least one of those lost shot’s would’ve been the prettiest one EVER! :D

BTW, mostly came over here to thank you again for your lovely simple chicken adobo recipe. This has become my go-to recipe for potlucks at the Sebago Canoe Club, and I’m getting ready to make a batch for our annual Frostbite Regatta. I’m stirring things up a bit this time with the addition of ginger root, simply because I happen to have a big chuck of ginger on hand that I want to use up – but other than that, it’s still basically your recipe that I’ve come back to time and time again. Making it always reminds me of the wonderful church potlucks that my family would go to back when I was a kid growing up in the little town of Aiea on the island of Oahu – every family had their own special recipe for chicken, either adobo or teriyaki, and I loved them all!

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About me

I write, cook, play music, and make pictures. Not necessarily in that order. I was born and raised in the Philippines, and it shows. That means I eat rice with every meal, love my family like nobody's business, and firmly believe that avocados are best eaten with cream and sugar.

If you want to learn more about me, here are 43 things I'd like to do. Oh, and here's a little something about my name, in case you were wondering.

Filipino Chicken Adobo

Chicken adobo is the Filipino dish most people are familiar with. Here's my quick and easy version that requires minimal prep work and only one pan. Perfect for busy weeknights.

Nutella Chips (Oh Yeah)

Yes, I made my own chocolate chips. Nutella chocolate chips, to be exact. Then I made cookies. Lots of cookies.

Lost and Found

One summer night in 2010, our house burned to the ground and we lost everything we had. This is the story of what happened and how life and hope can always rise from ashes.

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